Biffy Clyro's just-released album A Celebration of Endings is a Greatest Hits collection - of uplifting new songs. "We're showing all our colours," drummer Ben Johnston tells Harry Guerin. "All we ever want is to give somebody a little bit of solace, a little bit of comfort."
Every record we make is, in some ways, a reaction to the last record we made.
With [2016 album] Elipsis we were trying to make the perfect pop record with producer Rich Costey. Also, doing an acoustic album [2018's MTV Unplugged: Live at Roundhouse, London], we were a little bit worried that with putting our shirts on and playing acoustic music people might think we're growing up a bit too fast! This album, as a result, is a little bit heavier. It's got a little bit more 'hair' on it, I would say, than Elipsis does. And also, doing the movie soundtrack [2019's Balance, Not Symmetry] - that really freed us up and just gave us a real sense of inner confidence as a band. We made that album without any help from the record label or really anyone. We just trusted ourselves a little more to try things, so that definitely shows on this album.
It's never easy making an album.
It's easier the second time with the same producer [Rich Costey] because you get along a little better. Your first album with them is akin to a first date: you're only showing the good side of yourself, you're flirting, you're trying to be polite! And then the second date you're definitely heavily flirting! Some songs come easy, some take a while, but that doesn't always show in the listening of it. I feel on this album we've honed all those little things we've learned over the years and we've managed to put them together in a fairly succinct way. At the same time, we're touching all the corners of Biffy. We're showing all our colours.
The album was originally meant to come out in May but we postponed.
Yeah, it's a pain when you put so much effort into it - three trips to LA to get this done. And for us it's an album of the time: you record an album in that time period and you want it to come out in that time period so it all makes sense. And then when all these things start happening you're like, 'Oh, is this album even going to make sense?' It just so happens that it probably makes even more sense now than it did in the first place. It would've felt almost impossible to even promote an album and even for us to expect people to take that album to their hearts. Postponing it was really the only option. There's bigger things in the world going on than a band releasing their eighth album. We're super-lucky boys to get to do this at any point.
It's bonkers how the lyrics on A Celebration of Endings have taken on this different meaning since the Covid-19 emergency.
It keeps blowing my mind daily that I hear a lyric that I've heard for ages and I think about it in a new light and I'm convinced Simon [Neil, vocals-guitar] is clairvoyant. The song Space - 'No matter the distance between us, our joy lives in the moments we share. Love sure is meaningless when you're not there. Will you wait, will you wait for me?' - is actually a bit of a friendship song. I know it sounds more kind of like a soppy love song - it is a love song, but a love song about friendship and not about a couple. There's so many little lyrics I could pick out, like even Tiny Indoor Fireworks [where] we're talking about praying for the better days. You've also got songs like North of No South - 'Have you ever been a place from which you couldn't leave but of course you couldn't stay?'. All these lyrics keep popping out that are incredibly poignant. It takes my breath away every time I notice it.
The working title for the album for two minutes was The Pink Limit, which has actually become one of the song names.
The Pink Limit is a human reaching their limit and turning pink, which was really fitting! Then a few days later Simon - he said it came to him like a bolt of lightning - said A Celebration of Endings. It just summed up the album so perfectly. It's a quirky title because to celebrate the end of something isn't that common, but it was very fitting for the themes of the album, and so fitting possibly for the theme of lockdown as well. We were also trying to celebrate this end of humans being naughty - this kind of lack of conscience and lack of humanity and humility. We used to take it for granted, but now it seems you've got to work really hard for people to show these attributes! Then this all happens... So who knows? That might actually help us on the quest.
This album is trying to force a change.
We were trying to grab people by the shoulders and give them a shake. Try to tell people that, you know, the world's not going to sort itself out on its own. The people in charge aren't going to make the right decisions unless you make them.
This album is full of hope.
We have hope in the next generation of kids coming through. We have hope that they're going to kick up and say, 'Nah, this is not good enough - and people have to start being nicer'.
A Celebration of Endings is out now on 14th Floor Records.
